It wasn’t unusual for a Saturday, having to drop children off at sundry social engagements. This particular morning it was a session of paintball for a mate’s birthday party.
There were rain clouds in the sky, sure, but no indication that trouble of another sort was brewing. The alternator in the car had been a bit cranky, but a few whacks with a hammer by the technician from the auto club and it had been humming along for the past week and a bit.
As a precaution I had put the battery on charge the night before, and all was well. The car started first up and was purring like a happy kitten. Number one son was behind the wheel clocking up some hours on his learners. We had just dropped off number two son, done a u-turn and from the driver’s seat I hear: “Dad, the car feels weird.”
And he pulled over to the side of the road, and I swapped with him, and he was right. Engine was going, but there was no power. I turned the engine off, and went to restart and CLICK. Oh, joy, I thought. The battery was fully charged, what’s its story?
After another couple of tries, I put in a call to the auto club, and there we sat. On the outskirts of town. In the car, in the rain that had just started. Across the road I imagined a group of hyped up teenage boys happily slopping around in the wet shooting each other with paint balls.
Eventually the auto club guy arrived, fiddled around in the engine bay for a while, hit things with a hammer, shook his head with great solemnity and pronounced the alternator dead.
I said a prayer as he arranged a tow truck. A couple of days later our wonderful mobile mechanic had fitted a new alternator and our faithful old car was once again back on the road purring like a kitten.
When I look back on the episode I am reminded how often we rely on our own strength in life. When things are working smoothly we are happy to cruise along. We might pray every now and again. We open our Bibles a little less often than we should. And we work on the charge we have in our batteries.
We forget that the Lord has a kind of alternator that helps us purr along. When it’s not working properly, we are draining our battery. When we aren’t looking to Him for all things in our lives then we will get to that point where things just stop working and we start to fall apart.
Jesus said that even He doesn't do anything on His own, but only does what He sees the Father doing, through the power of the Holy Spirit. (John 5:30)
Here Jesus is talking about witness, and judgment, and the sovereign purpose of the Father. But the illustration still applies. We should be looking to Jesus in all areas of our life to keep our lives happy and healthy on the deepest level. Just as Jesus looked to the father knowing that it was from the Father that all things came.
Each morning, Jesus would go out on his own, in the quiet and He would pray, seeking the Father’s Will and the Holy Spirit’s strength for the day that was to come.
I started that particular day with a car battery that was fully charged. But there was nothing putting charge back into it as we drove around. It was inevitable that our car would fail. It had to.
I know that if I start my day without prayer, without reading the Bible, soaking myself in the well spring of His Word and the gentle flow of His presence, then it won’t be long before my battery goes flat. For I am not capable of doing anything under my own strength, but only in Him can I move forward into the wilds of the day with any confidence. After all, as the Apostle Paul tells me, I can do all things through the Lord who strengthens me. But it’s the Lord’s strength you see, and not my own.
Thank you Lord that through prayer and Your Word I am secure in Your Strength, and that throughout the day, I can pause and seek You to revive and restore my soul in Your eternal Love.
Amen.